Over the last few months I have been collecting high quality used tapes and even a few brand new, unopened ones. I get them from the "Name Your Own Price" thrift store near my house. Recently I was able to score 4 Maxell XLII 100 CrO2 cassettes and 4 Maxell XLII 90 CrO2 cassettes. These are super high quality and perfect for recording on the Sharp GF-777z since it has the CrO2 setting for recording.
I am using my laptop to choose and arrange the songs. The beauty part of doing it this way as compared to the way we all did it back in the day is you can pre-program the amount of music and the computer calculates how much time all the songs add up too so you don't end up with a song cut off or 10 minutes of silence at the end of the tape.
Really, the main reason I am doing this is I am sick and tired of dragging an MP3 player and cable with me everywhere I go. It sucks to show up with fresh D cells all ready to go and then...."Hold On"...as I'm a total DOOF and struggle to get the cord plugged into the back and power up the MP3 player only to find out my daughters favorite Brittney Spears song starts to play!
NOT F'N COOL
Three 100 minute tapes equal's 5 hours of music. When I'm casually hanging out with friends, this is PLENTY of music. Even two 100 minute tapes, is allot and with a double cassette deck radio, they are on board and I don't have to carry anything extra.
JUST PUSH PLAY!
So now I am making my Super Bitchen, Extra Cool, Desert Island, Mega Mixes of various styles of music. 80's Pop, 80's Rock, 80's Metal. Modern Rock, Modern Metal, Modern Pop and thanks to Gluecifer a few mix tapes of "Ricks Thrashin' Madness" from a CD he made me of MP3's of the sickest Speed and Thrash Metal EVER! (Thanks again Rick)
All in all I may end up having to carry a small case logic case with me with 10 or so tapes and when the music gets stale I will start all over again and rerecord them all.
Lately I have been using both my Sharp GF-777z and my Lasonic TRC-975 as the traveling party blasters mostly because they have some really great mix tape features.
The Sharp GF-777z has a cool continuous play feature so tape 1 plays all of one side then it automatically switches to tape 2 and plays all of one side of that tape. While the tape 2 is playing I can flip tape one and when tape 2 is over it will start up tape 1 again. I then flip tape 2 and when that is over I have listened to 200 minutes or 3 1/2 hours of uninterrupted music.
The Lasonic TRC-975 has another cool feature on deck B which has a reverse-able head, so the tape plays both side of the tape in that deck. So 100 minutes uninterrupted. One tape swap and 200 minutes is almost seem less.
To be honest with you, it really makes using these radio's so much more easier then hauling extra stuff with me. And YES, I have gotten to my destination and had NO MP3 player! A few weeks ago at my studio, my bass player says, "Hey Man, there are some chicks coming by to check out studio and have a beer", I said, that's awesome! I started setting up the Blaster and "SH@T" No MP3 Player. Non of us had one! I had one 60 minute cassette in the Blaster and when that was spent, that was all she wrote. I tried the radio....LAME. 10 minutes later we heard those horrible, horrible words...."Well, I guess we're gonna get going!"
NOT F'N COOL
Never Again! As long as there are always at least 2 cassettes in the decks 3 1/2 hours of partying will take place!
I am using my laptop to choose and arrange the songs. The beauty part of doing it this way as compared to the way we all did it back in the day is you can pre-program the amount of music and the computer calculates how much time all the songs add up too so you don't end up with a song cut off or 10 minutes of silence at the end of the tape.
Really, the main reason I am doing this is I am sick and tired of dragging an MP3 player and cable with me everywhere I go. It sucks to show up with fresh D cells all ready to go and then...."Hold On"...as I'm a total DOOF and struggle to get the cord plugged into the back and power up the MP3 player only to find out my daughters favorite Brittney Spears song starts to play!
NOT F'N COOL
Three 100 minute tapes equal's 5 hours of music. When I'm casually hanging out with friends, this is PLENTY of music. Even two 100 minute tapes, is allot and with a double cassette deck radio, they are on board and I don't have to carry anything extra.
JUST PUSH PLAY!
So now I am making my Super Bitchen, Extra Cool, Desert Island, Mega Mixes of various styles of music. 80's Pop, 80's Rock, 80's Metal. Modern Rock, Modern Metal, Modern Pop and thanks to Gluecifer a few mix tapes of "Ricks Thrashin' Madness" from a CD he made me of MP3's of the sickest Speed and Thrash Metal EVER! (Thanks again Rick)
All in all I may end up having to carry a small case logic case with me with 10 or so tapes and when the music gets stale I will start all over again and rerecord them all.
Lately I have been using both my Sharp GF-777z and my Lasonic TRC-975 as the traveling party blasters mostly because they have some really great mix tape features.
The Sharp GF-777z has a cool continuous play feature so tape 1 plays all of one side then it automatically switches to tape 2 and plays all of one side of that tape. While the tape 2 is playing I can flip tape one and when tape 2 is over it will start up tape 1 again. I then flip tape 2 and when that is over I have listened to 200 minutes or 3 1/2 hours of uninterrupted music.
The Lasonic TRC-975 has another cool feature on deck B which has a reverse-able head, so the tape plays both side of the tape in that deck. So 100 minutes uninterrupted. One tape swap and 200 minutes is almost seem less.
To be honest with you, it really makes using these radio's so much more easier then hauling extra stuff with me. And YES, I have gotten to my destination and had NO MP3 player! A few weeks ago at my studio, my bass player says, "Hey Man, there are some chicks coming by to check out studio and have a beer", I said, that's awesome! I started setting up the Blaster and "SH@T" No MP3 Player. Non of us had one! I had one 60 minute cassette in the Blaster and when that was spent, that was all she wrote. I tried the radio....LAME. 10 minutes later we heard those horrible, horrible words...."Well, I guess we're gonna get going!"
NOT F'N COOL
Never Again! As long as there are always at least 2 cassettes in the decks 3 1/2 hours of partying will take place!
One other thing I started thinking about... cassettes don't need to be recharged. 
...but I must admit, throwing in a cassette tape does bring back fond memories so keep jamming those tapes... 
